How can I setup a virtual tech lab.

If your router is 192.168.0.1, then your reserved IP should be something in the router's DHCP pool, which is typically 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.254 (should be able to pick any of those in that range to reserve). If this is a cellular device, it may have a limited range of IP addresses, which I have seen is usually 10 devices, so it would be from 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.11 instead. Be mindful that if you reserve an IP address, no other device will be assigned that address and you may knock something else off of your network.



The default gateway should be your router's IP address (typically 192.168.0.1 for example). DNS is usually automatically assigned by your ISP, but you can also override that. Google's DNS servers are a good starting point and are 8.8.8.8 for DNS1 and 8.8.4.4 for DNS2. Hope that helps.

Remember Geejay is setting up a virtual network... so I think its best to give him the basics and let him learn to set up the basic DC, DNS, DHCP first, understand how the interact with each other, there purposes and how they actually work..

Then throw in 2/3 PCs into the network...

Once Geejay understands that he can relate it to a live environment :cool:
 
Thank you for your responses.....I will setup two servers and get them to talk to each other.

First things first though....I need to get it to work, something is wrong with the connection to my NAS.

I'm all about Desktop Support stuff but trying to learn about servers and networks now.
 
This is the learning part ;) but your setup is virtual so shouldn't speaking to your real network, so dont worry about VM router...

Create 2 servers, 1 for DC with DNS and 1 for DHCP..

Configure your DC (including setting a static IP say 192.168.0.2) and promote it, this will prompt you to config DNS (if server 2012 version).

then config DHCP server..
I've just created the first DNS DC and I'm about to start doing the 2nd. Exciting stuff!

How do I make it a DHCP?
 
How is your NAS set up?
My NAS is setup as a normal hard drive but once I add the 2nd HDD then it will be configured for RAID 1. It holds all my music and I wanted to keep it separate from my desktop.
I have a Sharecenter by D-Link. It has the latest firmware but since the latest Win 10 release it has been playing up more than usually.....long delays in connectivity, I initially had VMware pointing to my NAS but because of the connectivity issues I've now had to point it somewhere esle.
At the moment my Virtual network is pointing towards an portable hard drive, it has been formatted and so far so good.
 
Ok so I have created two DCs, the first one being the DNS server and the 2nd being DHCP.

When it comes to replication, is that something that is done automatically or is it is something that I need to configure myself.

What is the next step? If I remember from the top of my head, it was create user accounts and play about security groups, group policy and permissions...Is that correct or am I missing something out?

I must admit, it was quite fun learning this lol :cool:
 
Ok so I have created two DCs, the first one being the DNS server and the 2nd being DHCP.

When it comes to replication, is that something that is done automatically or is it is something that I need to configure myself.

What is the next step? If I remember from the top of my head, it was create user accounts and play about security groups, group policy and permissions...Is that correct or am I missing something out?

I must admit, it was quite fun learning this lol :cool:

Hey, your 2nd DC shouldnt be for DHCP, it should be for redundancy and authentication.. make sure you followed these steps here but remove DHCP first:
Adding additional Domain Controller (Windows Server 2012) | iSiek's blog about Microsoft Windows services

Then create a normal server, install the role DHCP and add to domain. that way if your DHCP server goes down then your DC is still up and running..

(just a tip you probably know already - all servers need a static IP)

next steps like you said is user accounts.. computers.. GPO etc..

This has to be done right and properly from the start.. if you make it messy it becomes hard and complex to re organize it later in a real environment..
 
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This is the learning part ;) but your setup is virtual so shouldn't speaking to your real network, so dont worry about VM router...

Create 2 servers, 1 for DC with DNS and 1 for DHCP..

Configure your DC (including setting a static IP say 192.168.0.2) and promote it, this will prompt you to config DNS (if server 2012 version).

then config DHCP server..

Oh, I thought you mean't for me to promote the 2nd server as a secondary DC with DHCP.

So you're saying that it should be a normal server with DHCP? :neutral:
 
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